Greater Ministries leader sentenced to 27 years
By Laura Bruce • Bankrate.com

The founder of a faith-based investment scam that took its victims for more than $500 million will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Gerald Payne, the 65-year-old founder of Greater Ministries International Church in Tampa, Fla., has been sentenced to 27 years in prison. He and three other ringleaders had been convicted on multiple counts of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering. The other three defendants will be sentenced later.

Payne and his gang conned thousands of people nationwide into investing in gold, silver and diamond mines in Africa and the Caribbean.

Investigators say it was a Ponzi scheme -- early investors were paid with money from newer investors.

Deborah Bortner, president of the North American Securities Administrators, says many people lost their life savings.

"I've been a securities regulator for 20 years and I've seen more money stolen in the name of God than in any other way," Bortner says.

Payne's wife, Betty, who was also in on the scam, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

-- Posted: Aug. 8, 2001